So...how can these companies afford to give away these gifts to us?
The concept behind it all is quite simple. It is all based on a "referral" system set up by certain companies. We are, in a way, the employees of the freebie sites. In order to obtain a free gift, we must register, complete a web offer (which in some cases is even free) and refer friends or family to do the same. For each gift, there are a certain amount of referrals needed, depending on of course the price of the gift.
Where the companies make their money is of course in the referrals that we provide. Take, for example, the LoveFilm offer (which is one of the most popular offers) which is a free trial. When a person completes a LoveFilm offer through one of these freebie websites, LoveFilm pays the freebie website commission for the potential customer and for the publicity the freebie website produces for it. Therefore, by referring our friends and family, we are making the freebie sites money, which they use to buy us our gift!
This idea is a new form of advertising set up by many big companies (such as LoveFilm, Coral, AOL, BT, etc) as people have started to become immune to television adverts! Put simply, we no longer trust the TV, so a new form of advertising is needed.
This method and the whole freebie scene has infact even appeared on BBC Newsnight and numerous American News channels. To view the BBC Newsnight coverage of this for yourself and further proof, just click here to get to the Proof page.
